a. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to oral hygiene products, and more particularly to a dental water jet unit.
b. Background Art
Harmful bacteria often grows deep between teeth and below the gum line. Traditional toothbrush and flossing often cannot reach these areas to remove the bacteria and food debris from these areas. To overcome the limitations of toothbrushes and flossers, a dental water jet may provide a pressurized water stream to remove trapped debris and harmful bacteria from areas not easily reached by a toothbrush or flosser. Such a dental jet unit typically consists of a pump supplying pressurized water from a water reservoir to a tip. The tip has an opening that permits the pressurized water stream to be directed to the desired locations within the mouth.
However, in many such dental water jets, the reservoir holding the water to be pressurized and provided to the tip must be mated with a base of the water jet unit by inverting the reservoir and attaching the base thereto. This is typically so because the opening by which the reservoir is filled doubles as the opening through which water may exit the reservoir to be moved by the pump.
The pumps used in dental jet units for providing the necessary water pressures to effectively remove food debris and bacteria are often noisy. Although the noise does not affect the dental jet's effectiveness at removing food debris and bacteria, it is often unpleasant for the user.
Further, many dental water jets may not provide any visual indication when a tip is properly seated or mated with the dental water jet (typically within a handle). Similarly, many dental water jets may not visually indicate when the tip is properly removed. Thus, users of such dental water jets may not fully seat the tip, leading to ineffective or weakened oral irrigation. Additionally, the water may leak into the atmosphere between the interface of the improperly-seated tip and the handle. Further, users of such water jets may experience difficulty fully removing the tip from the handle.
Although some dental water jets permit a user to adjust the flow of fluid from the reservoir to the tip, many do not provide fine fluid flow control. Others have discrete settings as opposed to permitting a user to fine-tune fluid flow.
For these and other reasons, there is room in the art for an improved dental water jet.